Village Inn Te Anau

... that as it keeps growing in popularity as a tourist destination that it will turn into a country of Vail's, Santa Barbara’s, and Boca Raton’s. Honestly I think the word is only recently getting out about how great of a holiday destination it is. It seems before it was a secret kept only by its close neighbors namely Australia, Japan, and its other Pacific coast cousins. The infamous Milford Road is pretty much God’s highway ...

... finally, the sun through the trees. My spirits are lifted after having made it through the snow. My feet are still wet, but not longer frozen, and I make it to the night's hut. It's in the middle of a very dense patch of forest, so I should have no problem finding wood for a fire. The thing is, it has rained here today, from the looks of it, and I can't find anything dry. I'm kicking myself for not having ever learned, I mean really learned, how to build a fire. After some time, it's just ...

... tour the sound, gaze up at mountains, waterfalls and out to the open seas... 3.15 - 4.45 arrive back at car 5.00 drive back to te anau behind a sunday driver 5.15 - 7.15 miss opportunity to bypass te anau to head straight to queenstown so check in 7.30... more details of our great one day adventure later...

... and facilities. We are annoyed to discover that our "waterproof" backpacks seem to have let in alot of water making for a mixture of dirty, smelly and wet clothes - thank goodness for washers and dryers - we buy two sachets of washing powder as our hiking socks are now toxic classifiable as a threat to public health and safety. We have a day here to chill out so we see the "Ata Whenua" or "Shaddowland" short film showing hellicopter footage of the 1.2 million ...

... 360 degree turns. The Shotover Jet, named after the Shotover river, was voted NZ's top attraction in 2006. In the afternoon we sailed on 'NZL 14' - NZ's entry in the America's Cup in 1992. A serious bit of racing kit and everything had been kept as per her racing days. The crew wanted to sail the boat as well as possible and we were encouraged to join in as much as we could. Winding the mainsail up was quite ...

Today we were proper tourists and did a day trip to doubtful sounds featuring a range of methods of transport: A CAR driven by our guide 'CC' picked us up from Te Anau and took us to Manapouri to check in. A MINI BUS took us the few hundred metre's to the harbor. A SMALLISH BOAT took us and our 7 fellow tourists, CC, and our driver/company owner across lake Manapouri, the sun shone and the sky was perfectly clear. A BUS then ...

... lakes to keep us occupied...<br><br><br><br><br><br>...w e even saw a choo-choo train!<br><br><br><br>When we arrived in Te Anau it was still really sunny, but there was a bitter wind blowing, which made me feel rather chilly in my shorts &amp; polo shirt!<br><br>Again the town was located next to a massive lake, which looked gorgeous in the morning sunshine.<br><br><br><br>We'd ...

... to Milford Sound; a tunnel from the Dart Valley. (class, get out your NZ maps). We'll believe it when we see it; meantime we enjoyed a long walk on the Routeburn and dry weather that let us get up normally impassable roads to the Dart track and some truly awesome views. I also swam in the Wakatipu on the very hot day of our arrival; a chilly experience!<br><br>And then on to Fiordland, still in sunshine (Although it's all turned to custard today!). We checked out the ...